William Smith said of his own education:
“During this period, I enjoyed in common with other boys of my age and circumstances, but limited opportunities for acquiring an education; and being like most youths, more fond of play than study, I made but little use of the opportunities I did have.”
“During this period, I enjoyed in common with other boys of my age and circumstances, but limited opportunities for acquiring an education; and being like most youths, more fond of play than study, I made but little use of the opportunities I did have.”
Christopher Stafford stated:
“Jo was the laziest one of the family, and a dull scholar, as were all the Smiths except Harrison and Catherine. I attended school with them, also Bill and Carlos.”
Perry Benjamin Pierce reported:
“I talked with men who were contemporaries of the [Smith] boys, — ‘went to school’ with them, as they phrased it, always qualifying the statement by the additional one, as one old farmer put it: ‘None of them Smith boys ever went to school when they could get out of it.’” (See Vogel 1996, 1:457, 3:179, 1:296, 486, 496, 27, 494, 2:194, 3:389)